Troyka are a British jazz trio making instrumental music and this is their third album. As you might expect from something from the jazzer regions this is quite complex, particularly with regard to time signatures but it really is quite listenable and you can clearly hear the more modern influences of the group from Aphex Twin to Flying Lotus.
The album title comes from guitarist Chris’ fear of birds and before you know it you have a concept album set in a fictionalised London whereby humans have contracted an avian flu that is turning them into human-sized birds. The album artwork is a comic book storyboard created by Naiel Ibarrola. The album was produced by Petter Eldh from Sweden and his work included resampling performances into entirely different compositions a la Bitches Brew. If all this sounds a little too much then maybe so but if you’re doing something creative then why not go the whole hog?
Of course the album abounds with those car crash jazz moments where a tiny mind (such as mine) is unable to cope with what sounds like a bunch of people playing different things differently at the same time. However, these moments are well tempered with tracks such as ‘The General’ which you could just as well describe as ‘smouldering blues’ and ‘Troyka Smash’ which would sit nicely on a Money Mark album.
‘Seahouses’ that finishes the album is a beautifully reflective piece. In this respect the album clearly descends from the dystopian nightmare which reaches its peak on ‘Thopter’, a track that includes a created newscast as narration. Prior to that ‘Magpies’ has prog overtones; ‘Ornithophobia’ is wrong enough to have been caused by fear certainly and ‘Life Was Transient’ is the most contemporary track and it really works. ‘Arcades’ is how any decent album jazz or otherwise, should introduce itself i.e. stylishly.
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Now, I would probably prefer to listen to the score from Hitchcock’s The Birds but frankly, this would make a pretty good substitute. I mean, let’s face it, indie is a husk of a corpse of a husk right? This will be proved, no doubt, by a Knebworth mega gig featuring the likes of Oasis and Cast and including a cameo from Noel Gallagher and his Low Flying Turkeys where the audience toast themselves by throwing pints of urine at each other because using the toilet is, “like, so nineties”, and chanting “you what, you what, you what, you what, you what”, mistakenly thinking these are the words to the hastily released Oasis cash in single, “I Am The Chorus”.
So why not take a ride into the vibrant, absorbing, and certainly happening, contemporary British jazz scene.
Naim Jazz Records online
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